Due to their weight, heavy doors will often sag due to the strain exerted on the hinges and the door frame or jamb on which the doors are hung. Most solid wood doors are connected to the door frame by three hinges (although other numbers of hinges may be used). Gravity pulls downward on the door. For doors mounted to a frame by hinges on one side, the gravitational forces tend to pull the top of the door away from the hinge side of the frame and push the bottom of the door towards the hinge side of the frame.
The gravitational forces acting on the hinge leaves may cause the leaves of the top hinge to bend or distort. The leaf connected to the door is pulled away from the jamb and the leaf of the hinge connected thereto such that the spacing between the leaves increases. In addition, the wood forming the jamb at the top of the door frame on the hinge side may also be pulled away from the framing to which it is attached such that the top corner of the door opposite the top hinge gradually pivots into engagement with the top part of the jamb opposite the hinges.
Similarly, as gravity pulls the bottom of the door downward and toward the side of the door frame to which the hinges are connected, the leaves forming the bottom hinge may be compressed, narrowing the gap between the leaves. In addition, the outwardly or horizontally directed component of the gravitational forces acting on the hinge mounted door tend to compress the portion of the jamb to which the bottom hinge is connected or push that portion of the jamb outward which gradually pulls the opposite side of the bottom of the door away from the jamb opposite the hinges.
The gap (or clearance) between the door and the jamb may be referred to as a reveal, and a uniform reveal of approximately ⅛″ or ¼″, for example, may be formed between the door and the jamb to allow the door to pivot out from the frame without hitting the jamb. When a door sags in the manner described above, the reveal between the top corner of the door and the jamb opposite the top hinge is generally eliminated (or reduced), and the reveal between the top corner of the door and the jamb adjacent to the top hinge is widened. Similarly, the reveal between the bottom corner of the door and the jamb opposite the bottom hinge widens, and the reveal between the bottom corner of the door and the jamb adjacent to the bottom hinge is narrowed.
Options for repairing a sagging door have included driving longer screws through the holes of the leaf of the top hinge connected to the jamb to draw the top part of the jamb to which the hinge is attached outward. However, this is an inaccurate solution and may be ineffective in many cases of misaligned doors. It is also known to replace the standard hinges with an adjustable hinge, such as the adjustable hinge shown in U.S. Pat. No. 8,490,246, in which the leaf attached to the door incorporates an adjustment mechanism to adjust the width of the gap between the leaves of the hinge when the door is closed. However, the adjustable leaf of this hinge and similar type hinges is relatively thick requiring routing out a recess in the door or a deeper recess in the jamb to receive the thicker leaf. In addition, hinges including an adjustment mechanism are expensive to manufacture and purchase, are bulky, may require hiring a contractor to modify the door and/or the jamb to accommodate the adjustment mechanism, and installation thereof may otherwise cause damage to the door, jamb, and/or paint. Thus, hinges including an adjustment mechanism are not an ideal solution for modifying the width of the gap between leaves of the hinges to realign doors in frames.
There remains a need for an easier option for realigning a door in relation to the jamb (e.g., for repairing a sagging door) that is inexpensive to manufacture and purchase and is relatively easy to implement and install (e.g., does not require assistance of an expert contractor).